1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system manufacture, and more particularly to a system and method for information handling system image communication over a network to a manufacture location.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Businesses often order multiple numbers of information handling systems for manufacture with predetermined software configurations so that the information handling systems will arrive at the business ready for use. The software configurations generally include specified operating systems and applications as well as customization settings, such as hard disc drive partitions, network settings, application settings, user profiles and data, and even desktop settings. In some instances, businesses will prepare an image of a hard disc drive having the desired software configuration and will provide the image to the information handling system manufacturer for copying to manufactured information handling systems. The businesses will send the image to the information handling system manufacturer who, in turn, sends the image to various development and fulfillment centers for manufacture preparation. Once the business image is tested and prepared for promotion to the factory, the image is sent to the manufacture location for copying to manufactured information handling systems. The manufactured information handling systems are then sent to the business with the desired image ready to interact with the business' information technology environment.
One difficulty with the manufacture of information handling systems using customer images is that the images are generally large in size and thus take considerable time to transfer by network communication. For instance, a typical notebook information handling system image has multiple gigabytes of information and takes hours to communicate through networks to overseas manufacturing sites. Additional delays are often introduced by the initial communication of the image from the customer to the manufacturer and communication of the image within various manufacturer development and fulfillment centers for testing and manufacture preparation. Further, storage of images at various manufacture centers consumes considerable memory resources for the extended time period during which the images are communicated, tested and used. Overall, the manufacture of information handling systems with images provided by customers and communicated by networks through the manufacturer centers generally imposes relatively high storage, network and management costs, as well as decreased customer satisfaction due to delays in manufacture and delivery of ordered information handling systems.